Young hospital volunteer has plenty to offer
Canonsburg Hospital volunteer Mary Anand, 18, of Wexford, assists emergency department manager Julie Ference in restocking rooms with medical supplies.
Mary Anand thoroughly cleans and sanitizes a hospital bed in the emergency department as part of her duties as a volunteer at Canonsburg Hospital.
Mary Anand wipes down a hospital bed with disinfectant.
Mary Anand is preparing for a career in medicine by volunteering at Canonsburg Hospital for a second summer.
At just 18 years old, Mary Anand of Wexford has already spent more time in a hospital than most people her age.
As part of Canonsburg Hospital’s volunteer program, Anand has taken advantage of the countless opportunities available to her as she gets a feel for what it is like to work in the health care industry.
“Volunteering in and of itself is a valuable and rewarding experience, giving back to the community, but volunteering here, where I have an educational value too, makes it that much more rich and worthwhile,” Anand said. “I highly recommend to any student that is even thinking about health care to come here. It’s worthwhile.”
Anand could have chosen to go to any number of hospitals along her nearly 45-minute commute to Canonsburg, but it was there that she has found the type of work that she enjoys most: helping others.
This is her second summer at Canonsburg, and it is the experiences there that helped her cement the decision to become a physician. She has previously participated in different health-related programs, but the hands-on experiences offered in a hospital are unparalleled to those learned in a lecture hall.
So far, she has learned about medical records and seen the equipment doctors use for surgeries. Anand also has witnessed triage administered first hand. It is experiences like these, Anand said, that make the knowledge gained all the more relevant.
“You get what you put in,” Anand said. “What better place to work than a place like this?”
Canonsburg’s volunteer program was reorganized last year to better serve the hospital.
Today, volunteers are more efficient in the help they provide to the hospital staff. This is due to the work of Gerri Giles, Canonsburg Hospital’s director of volunteer community services, who joined the hospital staff in 2016.
“Volunteers are just as important as the employees are here. They are a part of the patient experience,” Giles said. “The people who do volunteer have such great passion and compassion for this area, and they are a part of this community and you see that so much in the work they do.”
Julie Ference, the manager of the hospital’s emergency department, said that volunteers are incredibly helpful in the emergency room, as they fulfill tasks the doctors and nurses simply do not have the time to do.
“Whether they’re stocking, whether it’s going room to room and greeting a patient and saying ‘Can I get you anything, are you comfortable, can I get you a blanket,’ those are all things that are vital to the emergency room,” Ference said.
For Anand, a day at the hospital is just another day to help others and learn about the different processes and tasks that go into health care. The two days a week she dedicates to the hospital are not nearly enough, though, she added.
“She’s always looking to do something, she doesn’t care what it is,” Ference said about Anand. “She finds worth in any job, no matter what it is.”
In addition to volunteering, the hospital also offers job shadowing, where interested students follow a surgeon or doctor to see all of the tasks they do during a shift. Anand believes that both experiences are valuable and important for anyone interested in pursuing a career in health care.
“For a student deciding between shadowing and volunteering, do both,” Anand said while adding that shadowing is more hands-on and volunteering is like a behind-the-scenes look at hospital operations, each offering different perspectives.
While the summer is coming to an end, Anand’s future in health care is just beginning. She was home-schooled and graduated in the spring, and will go on to attend St. Vincent College this fall to pursue a degree in chemistry. After that, she plans to attend the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and could end up working in the same rooms she helped stock and prepare as a teenager.